The Internet in 2008/2009
At the time, the Internet was becoming "Web 2.0". New services like WordPress (first released in 2003), YouTube (launched in 2005), and Twitter (launched in 2006) were changing the way that people used the web in their daily lives. Websites were no longer one-way mediums that talked at the reader like a newspaper did. They were becoming interactive, with comments and discussions and user-generated content.
To give some context, 2008 was the height of the MySpace era, as people got on board with the idea of joining a "social network" site. The iPhone 3G had just come out in Summer 2008. Sites like Blogger, LiveJournal, and WordPress were at the forefront of this new citizen journalism movement, where people who would otherwise go unheard via traditional media outlets found a voice and an audience online.
Online publications such as The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Drudge Report were gaining readers as major newspapers were going out of business left and right during the Great Recession. Technology was making it possible to communicate and build an audience in a way that hadn't been seen since the invention of the printing press centuries earlier. It was an exciting time to be online.
The Hyperlocal News Movement
Phoenix is a huge city, with more than 1.6 million residents sprawled out over an area of 518 square miles. Within the city are distinct neighborhoods - the downtown core, Arcadia, Encanto, Maryvale, and numerous other historic and unique neighborhoods, each with their own history, their own character, their own story.
My goal in starting North Phoenix Blog was to be a hyperlocal source for news and information in a specific area of town: North Phoenix, what you might call the Deer Valley or Norterra area. I wanted the site to be the voice of the community and let residents know about things like new restaurants and businesses opening and closing, and maybe share a bit about the history of the area. I felt that the North Phoenix region was overlooked by larger publications like The Arizona Republic and the Phoenix New Times.
The only time North Phoenix ever got any press was from a professional Real Estate Agent who started a blog as a thinly-veiled marketing strategy. I felt that as a person living in the area, I could do better. So I created a free site with Blogger and got to writing.
A Flawed Plan
Well, it soon became clear that there were two problems with my strategy. First, it was 2009 and the economy was in the worst recession since the 1930s. The formerly fast-growing Deer Valley area had ground to a halt. No new homes or businesses would be constructed for years to come, and established businesses were going bust left and right. For an aspiring blogger, I couldn't have picked a worse time to write about local news, when there was little very news happening.
The second problem is that I work a full time job, and did not have the resources to go and do actual journalism. Stuff like conducting interviews, filing public records requests, telling both sides of a complex issue wasn't feasible to do on evenings and weekends. I was just one guy with a computer and an idea.
The lack of content to write about and the lack of time to put into stories (and maintaining a regular posting schedule) meant that my site struggled to find an audience. I wasn't good at writing time-sensitive pieces about events and activities, and after they have passed, no one cares to read about them. I decided to try a new approach, focusing on content that was not time-specific.
Local News Becomes Local History
One thing I did enjoy writing about was history. North Phoenix was built up substantially in the 1970s and 1980s, and is too new of an area to really have much history. The landscape is primarily made up of subdivisions of low-density, single family homes built on large tracts of land by developers, dotted with commercial shopping centers at major corners. Not exactly a thrilling history.
As it turns out, the focus of a blog about one specific area of the city was TOO narrow. So I started branching out with other posts about the Phoenix area and Arizona, such as:
- Arizona Trivia and Little-Known Facts
- 101 Things to Do in Phoenix
- You Grew Up in Phoenix in the 80s If You...
- You Lived in Phoenix in the 60s, 70s, and 80s If...
- The History of Lake Pleasant
- Discovering Arizona's Point of Origin
- Duppa Homestead - The Oldest House in Phoenix
The Competition
Another problem that I didn't see coming was the competition. As I mentioned, the idea of "hyper-local news" was a pretty new concept in 2009. Today in 2020, there are lots of ways people can find out what's happening in their community.
Reddit has a local news and discussion forum (subreddit) called /r/Phoenix with 75,000 members.
NextDoor.com has become the premier social network for people to discuss issues online with residents of their specific, local neighborhood.
Facebook Groups allow people to join, share, and discuss topics of a shared interest, such as local history. There are a few great Facebook Groups dedicated to Phoenix history, including one with nearly 6,000 members.
NoPhoNews, a local news website launched in 2017, is the online version of a niche print publication founded in 2005. They have basically done what I set out to do, covering local news and issues in the North Phoenix area.
The Future
After 12 years and 200+ posts, I don't know where to go next with North Phoenix Blog. There are still plenty of ideas I would like to write about, but there are also other projects I would like to work on as well.
I will continue to write for the site on an occasional basis, as I have done for the past couple of years. There is no regular posting schedule, but I will publish articles as I find ideas that strike me as worth writing about.
Looking back over the past 12 years, it has been a great ride writing about the city I love and hearing the responses from readers who have a real appreciation for local history has been very rewarding. Thank you so much for reading, and I look forward to bringing you more articles going forward.
4 comments:
Keep it going, and on your own terms and timeline - that's the valley of the sun mentality I remember ('78 to '91). Mooky.
I'm all for independent thinkers who aren't beholden to large scale corporate entities who ultimately care only about revenue streams...
Please keep this great site going. I've been a Phoenix resident for over 40 years and think your site is fantastic!
Your indepth stories, pictures and research are outstanding!
You help me remember places I'd almost forgotten about.
As said before, keep it going. Keep your focus on what receives he most response, which looks like nostalgia. People love reading and commenting on things they remember. Sometimes it even makes for re-connecting between old friends and even family. Maybe invite similar posts from towns and cities around Arizona. (Prescott, Yuma, Payson,etc.). But you have found something that brings a smile to reader's faces, and it may be remembering trivia, but the results are far from trivial. You make a lot of people happy for a while, and not many can claim that. Keep blogging and posting.
You're doing a fine job and I, for one, enjoy and appreciate it. I grew up in Sunnyslope area in the 70's and 80's and every now and then Google something and your site/blog or whatever it is, pops up with info amd photos... I thank you for that. I am also a writer, both prof amd for fun and appreciate you taking the time to do this. Thanks again!
-Tat
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